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Character Analysis; How do your characters define you?
Topic Started: Jul 22 2009, 04:28 PM (439 Views)
HyTex
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This is a topic for reflecting on how one's major RP characters define them. I'll go first to show what I mean, and to hopefully give myself some extra insight on my own characters (seeing as reading one's thoughts can be more effective than simply thinking them.)

Shade is an all-around representation of myself. Created when I was ~13-14 years old, his assassin-setup for battling represents my willingness to get a job done, but the simultaneous desire to inflict as little pain as possible in the process and keep everything efficient. This also represents my avoidance of pain, seeing as an ideal assassin is never wounded. His Shadow and Dark elemental alignment personifies my general negative views/criticisms of myself. The same applies to his partial Demonic heritage.

His initial evil phase (approximately the first few centuries) was one which I never defined very well. This is due to the fact that I feel I have a regrettable past which I dislike thinking about; if I remember an embarrassing moment in my life I'll wince physically.

The good/lawful natured phase which follows is my personal favorite; it represents my general disposition on the good-evil spectrum while still illustrating the tainted past I claim to have. It is the most played as it is the phase which I can most relate to (due to it being the present in real life when I played it).

Finally, his final stage of life where his technologically/biologically manufactured body deteriorates is a prediction as to what was to come (created when I was about 15 or 16, approximately the beginning of my Junior year when I was in a rough spot and wasn't doing well emotionally). Shade regains his evil disposition in this phase, perhaps as yet another prediction of what would happen to me. I never played this phase much other than in a few battles, only one or two of which were ever completed.

And on a side note, Azir and his powers are the creative manifestation of my emotions, and almost serve as an update to Shade. I tend to employ Azir most effectively when experiencing negative emotions. His time of creation, the beginning of my Junior year, attests to that. Again, he is a dark elemental, showcasing my viewing of myself. I can't explain Azir as well as I can Shade, due to not enough time having passed since I created him.

Legitimately the last note: The spiritual transfer of Shade to Azir is the representation of my old vision of myself becoming secondary to the new one, while still existing as a part of it, making it possible to exist as it is.
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Root
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An interesting idea, I might take part eventually once I gather my thoughts. Some people make their characters simply to be creative, others weave themselves into their characters without doing self-inserts.

Well done, though.
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Jeff
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Veteran Monster Hunter/Rancher
Speaking from experience, anything you make has a bit of yourself in it. Even if the character in no way represents you in a meaningful way, a part of yourself is still placed in the character. Even if you create a villain who stands for everything you hate - that's just it - he hates what you love or hold dear and thus, in a way, is a part of you. Your creations are a part of you - take pride in that.

Pea Princess, believe it or not, is a character near and dear to me heart. Her origin is laughable, but one's origin does not dictate one's personal value. I was waiting for a phone call, and I set my cell phone so that it was lying in the middle of my watch - which was metal. It reminded me of a time while fishing where a friend got better cell phone reception by putting his fishing rod next to it.

This reminded me of the whole "CELL PHONE WAVES CAUSE CANCER" bit that happened in the mid and late 90's, which then reminded me of a similar scare in the 80's concerning microwaves. This, somehow or the other, led to a rather amusing mental image of putting the smallest conceivable crumb of food in a microwave, then placing a cell phone on it. Well, I immediately considered the green pea. This made me imagine a crazed mad doctor from a Saturday morning cartoon show trying to do this in order to make something off-the-wall like a giant man-eating pea monster.

Well, I began toying with this idea some in my mind and it shaped a super-heroine. This probably has to do with my massive rediscovery of super heroes as a whole, thanks to The Greatest American Hero, Viewtiful Joe and Spider-Man's 1994 series (not the sucktastic new one). She rapidly evolved and, thanks to a friend, spurred the generation of Hardware Girl Century, Futon Woman, Mega Nekko, Ted Stryker and Dan's set of heroes including Penup Lass.

Pea Princess has evolved in my mind to embody the ideals of the heroes I grew up with in the late 80's, early 90's - particular the '94 Spider-Man series and BatMan: The Animated Series - and new heroes who also revisit the same themes like the aforementioned Viewtiful Joe and others. She represents a childlike portion of me when anyone and anything could have its own TV show and just had good ol' fashion heroes versus villains without needing to soliloquize on every action and metaphor for 2 and a half hours.

She represents my early childhood, my love of super heroes and a mixture of comedy and action that doesn't need to be darker and edgier to be fun. She's a part of who I am and I want to see where pursuing my love of heroes will take me. I'll let you all know when I get there.
"It's cogerent. ... That's coherent and cogent at the same time," ~Dietaku
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